"Secrets and Special Sauce"
By: DementedDreameater

"I'm off to work now, sweetheart." Draco Malfoy grabbed his briefcase and proceeded to give his wife a kiss on the cheek.

"Alright, take care." She kissed him back. After adjusting his tie a bit, she added hesitatingly, "Don't go home too late, okay?"

The blonde gave her a warm smile as his thumb caressed her cheek. "I'm not sure I can promise that." And tucking a stray strand of curly brown hair behind an ear, "You know how demanding my work is."

His wife sighed, then added jokingly, "Yeah, it's almost as demanding as me."

"Almost." Draco chuckled, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling the brunette into a hug. Sarcastically, he whispered, "Who knew Hermione Granger could be so demanding?"

His warm breath on her ear sent shivers down her spine. And she immediately knew he was referring to their activities the previous night. She had waited for him to come home and had helped him...unwind.

"I'm looking forward to another massage after work." The blonde continued, gently nipping on his wife's earlobe.

She giggled, roughly pushing him away. "Then hurry back home!"

He quickly turned around and planted a swift kiss on her lips. "I'll try." With a smile, the blonde apparated to work.

Little did he know, the smile on his wife's face had disappeared immediately after he had.

Hermione and Draco had been blissfully married for two years now. After the war, the blonde had changed significantly. They had come to reconciliation after many years of rivalry and petty fights during their stay at Hogwarts. The two had slowly gotten to know each other better and had eventually fallen in love.

No children. Yet. They were still perfectly happy with each other's company.

...well, at least that was what Hermione firmly believed in until a couple of weeks ago.

Draco used to come home early after work and have dinner with her. Recently, though, he'd been coming home in the wee hours of the morning. He'd also become secretive and evasive when asked about work. Sometimes, she'd find him sending and receiving owls at strange hours in the night. But it wasn't until she came upon one of those owls while cleaning (but really more like snooping around) his study did she really start to panic. The owl read:

Draco,

Thanks for last night!
What you did was wonderful.
See you later, same time.

Ginny

It didn't take the clever witch long to put two and two together, but she really couldn't believe it. Ginny was her only girl best friend and was supposedly happily married to 1/3 of the Golden Trio. Obviously to a Mr. Harry Potter.

For Draco to have an affair with Ginny was inconceivable.

Last time she checked, Ginny was head-over-heels in love with Harry. And her own Draco loved her very much. Not to mention he knew Hermione would hex his precious family jewels off before they got to put it to good use should he prove unfaithful.

But, as much as she hated to admit it, there was a chance that she might not be 100% correct or sure this time. That was the only explanation for his strange behavior. His own excuse for coming home late was that he was swamped with work. Draco never once mentioned he had been seeing Ginny. If they were just having harmless meetings as friends, why did he have to hide it from her? Why did he have to be so secretive about it? Why did he have to lie?

Once again, for Draco to have an affair with Ginny was inconceivable...but not entirely impossible.

So, recently, Hermione found herself unable to think of anything else besides her husband and her best friend's possible affair. Whenever she prepared meals, she wondered whether Ginny also prepared good meals for him. They say the best way to a man's heart was through his stomach, after all. Whenever she was doing the laundry, she'd look for lipstick stains on his shirts or traces of Ginny's perfume.

But he was one smooth criminal.

She found no traces of any promiscuous activities. In fact, the only piece of evidence incriminating Draco was the letter she found in his study. Whenever he came home from work, she'd subtly try to fish details out from him but he was one well-guarded bastard that never let anything slip out.

Ginny was just as guarded. During one of their afternoon teas together in her living room, Hermione tried fishing around for details.

"So, Ginny," Hermione started, pouring the redhead a cup of tea. "How are you and Harry doing?"

"Oh...well," Ginny blushed. "It's been great 'Mione. Harry's a real sweetheart."

"Oh yeah? Harry isn't giving you any trouble now, is he?"

Ginny laughed heartily. "Well, he has almost burned down the kitchen four times now."

Hermione couldn't help laughing as well. She could just imagine the bespectacled man clumsily trying to make dinner for his wife. He was amazing at Quidditch, dueling, flying, etc. But he sure couldn't cook for his life.

Hermione cleared her throat, remembering her objective for that afternoon. "Draco's the same. Whenever he tries to cook, we both end up spending more time in the bathroom than we want to." Then, passing the cup to Ginny and studying her friend's reactions, she added, "He's been coming home pretty late recently though...so that hasn't happened in a while."

Ginny maintained her look of indifference but something in the redhead's eyes changed and Hermione didn't miss it. Hermione almost sensed a hint of alarm in her friend. But it was masked by a smile. "I take it he's very busy at work then?"

Hermione frowned as she thought, "I don't know. You tell me." The brunette willed the frown away with a slight smile. "Well, that's what he says."

Ginny sipped on her tea. Hermione never once took her eyes off her friend. And going in for the kill, she continued, "It's been a while since you two saw each other, hasn't it...what with Draco's late nights at work..."

Again, something changed in her friend's bright brown eyes. Although only momentarily, Hermione did not miss the slight look of alarm that passed through them.

"Yes...I suppose it has been a while."

That afternoon, Hermione didn't get anything more than that. They had bid farewell to each other like they normally do. The casuality of it all hurt her. Had her friend always been that good at deceiving her?

She wanted to confront Draco about it. Ask him about it directly. She wanted him to personally disprove her sordid theories for the sake of her mental and emotional health. Because she really was going crazy about it all.

But she couldn't do it.

That would mean running the risk of confessing that she'd been a jealous, untrusting, snooping kind of wife, the kind that Draco would hate and the kind that she herself disapproves of. What if it really was just an innocent letter? Then she'd be humiliated. She'd have exposed this green-eyed monster to her beloved and their relationship would never be the same.

Or worse.

What if, after confronting him, he confirmed said theories? What then? Would they have to split up? Would she be able to muster enough self-control to resist hexing both Draco and Ginny to the next millenium? Hermione didn't think her heart could handle the heartbreaking news.

But she also couldn't handle her curiosity. So she continued to snoop. Aegis, her husband's eagle owl looked at her unblinkingly while she rummaged through his study.

"What are you looking at?" She asked the bird. "You think snooping around is bad? Cheating on your wife - now that's bad! And you're just as bad as him. You're an accomplice, you know that?" The eagle owl blinked then went back to smoothing out its feathers with its beak.

"I just had a fight with a bird." Hermione ran a hand over her face. "Merlin, I'm going mental! I just had a fight with a bloody BIRD!"

This trip to the study yielded yet another suspicious owl.

Draco,

I think Hermione's on to us.
Best be on your guard.
Thanks again and see you same time.

Ginny

"So they're definitely up to something..." Hermione felt hot tears slide down her cheeks. She felt betrayed. Betrayed by her best friend. Betrayed by her husband. And for once in her life she didn't know what to do. She didn't know what to do to stop their relationship from going downhill.

That night, Draco came home late again, but this time, Hermione wasn't in the living room reading a book and waiting for him. He loosened his tie and put his briefcase away. "Sweetie?" She wasn't in the kitchen. He trudged up the stairs and peeked into their bedroom. He saw his wife on the bed and fast asleep. Draco sighed, wrote a letter and owled it to someone. He changed into his pajamas and crawled into bed.

"'Night, 'Mione."

Hermione was only feigning sleep though. She couldn't sleep even if she wanted to. Upset and hurt, she gave up waiting for him to come home and would pretend to be asleep when he eventually did come home.

He must've noticed the change in her rituals. One morning, right before he left for work, he kissed her tenderly before saying, "Hey, why don't you take a break from chores today. You might be overworking yourself. Every time I come home, you're out like a light." The blonde then wrapped his long arms around her waist and wore a seductive smile on his face. "I miss my massages."

"Like hell you do!" She thought bitterly. "Don't you get enough of that from Ginny, you horny bastard?" But Hermione just smiled.

Draco, unaware of his wife's angry thoughts, continued to smile. "Give yourself a treat. Go to a salon. To a spa. Go shopping. Anything you want."

"Anything I want, huh? What I want is for you to keep your bloody hands to yourself! Or preferably just on me!" Out loud she replied, "fine".

After Draco left for work, Hermione snooped around again. This time, she found a letter in her husband's handwriting. He must've been in too much of a hurry to go to work to send it. Her eyes widened and her face blanched with what she read.

Ginny,

Thanks again for last night.
Yeah, I think it would be even better to have Harry join us.
We all know how good he is at that. Bring him.
Put that wand of his to good use.

Draco

All sorts of disturbing thoughts raced through her mind as she tried to comprehend the message. She didn't even want to know what Harry would be doing with his wand. And she definitely did not want to know how good Harry was at whatever disgusting thing he used his wand for. One word seemed to sum all the disturbing thoughts up.

Threesome.

A bloody threesome.

"The sick bastards! Now they've got Harry in on it, too!" She gripped the desk for support.

And to think that her own Draco, her own seemingly straight Draco was the ringleader. Hermione almost puked her lunch out.

This was the last straw. She couldn't - wouldn't take it anymore. In the heat of the moment, she grabbed Draco's eagle owl, cohort to his master's infidelity, messenger of the devil himself, and eyed it with an evil grin on her face.

Hermione walked home with a ton of shopping bags in both hands. She was never really a fan of shopping or pampering herself, but she was too frustrated and hurt to pass up the chance for a good distraction. Of course, her shopping bags were filled with books, tomes and other reading materials she fancied to buy that day. She had also gotten a manicure, pedicure and a facial but that was it. She wouldn't let them so much as even think about touching her hair. She also bought a couple of ingredients for the special sauce she was planning to make that would go very nicely with the roast in the oven.

She unlocked the front door and was greeted by a dark house, but suddenly, the whole room lit up as people jumped out of the darkness, shouting, "Surprise! Happy Birthday, 'Mione!"

The brunette was flabbergasted. "What the..."

All around her were balloons, streamers, confetti, presents neatly and colorfully wrapped, and her friends' smiling faces.

"You shoulda seen the look on your face!" Ron chuckled, giving her a friendly hug.

"B-birthday?" Hermione stammered, walking through the crowd of people taking turns hugging her and kissing her on the cheek.

The brunette spotted a familiar bespectacled friend. "H-Harry?"

"Of course!" Harry laughed. "Don't tell us you forgot your own birthday?"

"You really should steer clear of those books you keep reading. They're messin' with your head." George joked, wrapping his arm around Angelina's waist. "Forgetting your own birthday. I mean, come on, who does that?"

"Now, now, George." Angelina gently scolded. "Don't tease. It's her special day!"

"'Mione! Dear!" Hermione was bear-hugged by the Weasley matron. "Have you been eating well? I brought your favorites today! Happy birthday, dear!"

Finally sinking in, Hermione couldn't help smiling. "All this is for me? Thank you so much!"

"Well, if there's someone you should be thanking it's them!" Ron pointed behind her.

Hermione turned around and saw Draco and Ginny, both smiling brightly at her. Ginny immediately gave her a massive hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Happy birthday, 'Mione! Wow was it hard to keep this party a surprise. I thought for a while you were coming on to us!" The redhead pulled away, still smiling. "Draco and I have been planning this party for ages. It took a little work to coordinate with everyone but it was worth it."

The brunette couldn't believe what she was hearing. Speechless, she settled for hugging the air out of her best friend. How could she have been so wrong?

Hermione looked at the blonde as he made his way to his wife. "I'm sorry I've been coming home late recently, love." He started, taking her hand in his left one. His right hand held something behind him.

"I told you I'd been swamped with work, but actually I've been planning with Ginny for your party. I'm not much of a party-planner so I figured reinforcements were needed. And..." He took a deep breath, his smile growing. "We've been working on a little extra something for you, too." Draco then revealed his right hand. It was holding a present beautifully wrapped in gold and red. He placed it in her hands. "Go on. Open it."

The brunette looked at her husband before opening the present and revealing a beautiful gold necklace studded with one large red gem at the center and smaller red gems all around.

"It's...it's beautiful." Hermione gasped.

Draco gently took the necklace and, while Hermione lifted her bushy brown hair, clasped it around his wife's slender neck.

"It took a while to make that. You see, that's no ordinary necklace." The blonde said proudly. "With the help of Ginny and Harry, we were able to cast some interesting charms on it."

And suddenly, everything made sense. The secrets. The owls to Ginny. The late nights. Harry's involvement. Draco and Ginny weren't having an affair! They were preparing this very sweet, very thoughtful party and gift for her.

Draco caressed her face. "We were able to cast a very strong protective charm on it. Although Voldemort's gone for good, there are still some shady people out there. I wanted to make sure you were safe at all times."

Hermione enveloped her husband in a warm embrace and kissed him repeatedly as the people around her cheered. She felt all the terrible feelings quickly melt away. How could she even think that her husband and her best friend could ever betray her? Draco loved her. He really did. And she now loved him more than ever.

"Wasn't easy, too, 'Mione," Harry piped in. "Since Draco here wanted to have another type of charm on it as well."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well," Ginny started. "He said just having a protective charm on it was boring. So he thought it would be nice to have the gems change color depending on your mood. Kind of like one of those muggle mood rings. Neat, huh? We almost weren't able to finish it in time for your birthday." And, giving Harry a lingering kiss, "Good thing Harry helped." Harry pinked, wrapping an arm around his wife's shoulders.

Draco pulled away but kept his arms around the brunette's waist. "See the gems now? They're bright red." He wiggled his brows as he smirked. "That means you're hot for me."

Hermione giggled. She had been too caught up in her bitter and untrusting self to see that she was surrounded by such loving people who were incapable of the despicable things she had been thinking up. She felt ashamed but at the same time relieved and happy.

"Thank you so much, everyone!" Then, embracing the blonde again, "Thank you, Draco! I love you so much."

Draco chuckled, eyeing the reddish glow of the gems. "Yes, love, I can see that." He snuggled into her soft curls. "Anything for you. I'll always love you."

"Alright!" Ron coughed. "Let the party begin!"

Party music started to play and guests went around talking or fussing about presents or food.

"Oh, by the way 'Mione," Draco pulled away. "Have you seen Aegis?"

Hermione blanched.

"I need to owl my father about something."

She felt her heart stop for a while and all the joy in the world slowly fade away.

"Oh shit."

Hermione had completely forgotten about that.

"Bloody owl's probably gone off somewhere. I can't seem to find him anywhere..." A look of concern settled on the blonde's face. "You okay, love? The gems suddenly turned gray... And you look like you just saw a dementor."

"Oh shit. Oh shit."

"Oh wow, the gems turned black now. Maybe we made a mistake with our charms..."

Somewhere in their kitchen, the timer of the oven went off.

"Mmm!" Ron called out. In his eagerness to start filling his plate up, he had ventured into the kitchen.

"What's in the oven, 'Mione? Smells good!"

A/N: LOL. I can't seem to make a serious Dramione.

Lesson of the Story:
Don't mess with Hermione Granger. She's hardcore. She eats eagle owls. *insert evil laugh here*

I feel bad for Draco's eagle owl though. *sigh*
But I don't think people really eat owls. I heard their meat is tough and kind of tasteless. (NOT speaking from experience, okay? HAHA.)

But not to worry, I will bring him back to life in my TT&TD story. Just not sure if its name will still be Aegis. :)

Hope you like it! Please do review! :)